There is a better way to do it.
I'd build it this way using 3 tables (I'm guessing at field sizes):
Genres
---------
genre_id int not null auto increment primary key
name varchar(50)
Anime
--------
anime_id int not null auto increment primary key
name varchar(50)
Anime_x_Genres
---------------------
anime_x_genre_id int not null auto increment primary key
anime_id int not null
genre_id int not null
Using these 3 tables I can keep a list of genres, and add to it whenever I want without having to change any of my other tables, and I can have a single Anime linked to multiple genres.
This is a standard format for many to many relationships in a normalized database.
Here are some queries for getting information out of this design:
-- Get a list of anime with genres
SELECT a.name, g.name
FROM anime a, genres g, anime_x_genres axg
WHERE a.anime_id = axg.anime_id
AND g.genre_id = axg.genre_id;
-- Get a list of genres for a specific anime
SELECT g.name
FROM anime a, genres g, anime_x_genres axg
WHERE a.anime_id = axg.anime_id
AND g.genre_id = axg.genre_id
AND a.name = 'Akira';
-- Get a list of anime titles by a specific genre
SELECT a.name
FROM anime a, genres g, anime_x_genres axg
WHERE g.genre_id = axg.genre_id
AND a.anime_id = axg.anime_id
AND g.name = 'Action';
